Knife attack bravery award for Paudie

ENNIS resident Paudie Sheahan was presented with a national bravery award at a ceremony held in Farmleigh House recently following an incident in the county town where he confronted a dangerous knife-wielding man in 2001.
Paudie was one of 18 recipients at the awards ceremony and was presented with a bronze medal and certificate of bravery for his efforts to rescue a woman being threatened by a man wielding a knife.
He explained how the incident unfolded on Christmas night in 2001 and how he was faced with the split-second decision to go up against an armed man in order to rescue a woman in distress.  
“We were sitting in our sitting room, the DVD player was new and we were trying to figure out how the thing worked. It was around 9pm and we had two children aged two and nine months at that stage.
“My wife, Trofi, heard someone screaming outside. I opened the door. I really thought it was someone who had fallen off a skateboard or something, it was that kind of shouting. Between the door of our house and the gate pillars, there is about 10m so when I opened the door, there was this man holding a woman up to the pillar of our house with a knife that I could clearly see. It was a kitchen devil knife. It wasn’t until when I subsequently saw it in an evidence bag that I thought ‘oh God’,” Paudie recalls.
At the time, Paudie said his initial instinct was to watch and he thought in doing so, this would deter the man from doing anything further. This became increasingly difficult when faced with the woman calling to him, ‘please help me’.
“I thought if I’m watching him nothing is going to happen because I was a witness. I told my wife to phone the guards. My intention was to watch him and the police were on their way but he frog-marched the woman down the road behind a parked car and I couldn’t see her but she was still screaming. I ran down and she was on the ground and he was trying to keep her steady. I had nothing with me, I just ran into it. Figuratively and literally, I ran straight into it,” he outlined.
Paudie connected with the man hoping to startle him enough for the woman to get away. He told the woman to run but the man got up and a fight ensued between Paudie and the man, who held onto the knife throughout.
“I was fighting him and then I remember running in the opposite direction and I kept thinking that I can run and run and he’ll never catch me but he stopped and turned.
“He had seen the woman run towards our house, whereas I hadn’t. So he made his way back towards our house, I tackled him before he did that. He got up and he broke one pane of our window. One punch and he was after me again. One time, he hit me with the blade but luckily it was with the flat of the blade,” he said.
The reason Paudie believes he was so lucky is because of the way the man was holding the knife with the handle of the knife in his fist, so when he was striking Paudie he only connected with his fist.
“Between the fighting and not fighting, he jumped in the window in on top of the Christmas tree, I went in after him in the window.
“It was horrible. My wife was terrified, she couldn’t watch because we were under the bay window and she couldn’t see down. It all was like slow motion. She was screaming my name but I never heard a thing.
“The gardaí arrived into the house and they came in just as he was stunned and I told them he had a knife and then got it out of the way. I was injured but not badly,” Paudie concluded.
At the event, held in Farmleigh House, it was highlighted that Paudie “put himself in grave danger by confronting this attacker. There is no doubt that this incident could have had a more serious outcome”.
The award was presented to Paudie by Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett, TD on Friday, November 25.
The honours were awarded by Comhairle na Mire Gaile, the Deeds of Bravery Council, which was established in 1947 to provide for suitable recognition by the State of deeds of bravery. The council is chaired by the Ceann Comhairle and is made up of the cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the Lord Mayor of Cork, the Garda Commissioner, the president of the Association of City and County Councils and the chairman of the Irish Red Cross.
Congratulating all concerned, Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett, TD, said, “These honours are richly deserved and the awards are a fitting tribute and recognise heroic acts by members of the public, as well as members of our emergency services, many of whom without regard for their own personal safety, put their lives on the line to help others”.